Drug-user ordered to pay £195 after he is caught with cannabis worth £1

A cannabis user who was caught with the drug revealed how he has been smoking cannabis as an alternative medication for anxiety and depression.

Chesterfield magistrates’ court heard on Thursday, October 5, how Joseph Mellor, 23, of Derby Road, Matlock Bath, was stopped by police due to an unrelated matter when officers had grown concerned about a group acting suspiciously.

Prosecuting solicitor Becky Allsop said: “Mellor was seen by police and stopped due to an unrelated matter because they believed a group had been acting suspiciously.

“He smelled of cannabis and he said he had been smoking a joint and he had a grinder in a rucksack and it had 0.1grammes of cannabis in it.”

Mellor admitted the item found was cannabis and it had been the remnants from an earlier joint.

He told police he has been smoking cannabis for about seven or eight years.

Mellor pleaded guilty to possessing the class B drug after the incident on April 5 and it was accepted that this was for personal use only.

Defence solicitor Bertie Mather said the street value of the amount of cannabis recovered was £1.

He added that Mellor has not been working due to anxiety and depression and the overwhelming effects of his medication had become so stupefying that he had been using cannabis instead.

Magistrates fined Mellor £80 and ordered him to pay a £30 victim surcharge and £85 costs.